Network

The CLEAR VILLAGE Network consists of experts from a wide variety of disciplines who all share the same passionate commitment to developing sustainable solutions through a process of co-creation.

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Current members

ALASTAIR MACKENZIE, Facilitator and Leadership advisor

Alastair trained as an Anthropologist and his wildlife photography took him around the world with the BBC and WWF. Passionate about bringing people together to find creative solutions he was part of the core team of social entrepreneurs who developed the first Hub in London. www.the-hub.net. He continues to train in sustainable and collaborative design skills and has worked for two years as a gardener and facilitator at a rural leadership center in Devon. His current work as a facilitator and leadership adviser supports projects such as CLEAR and he is developing a boat venue on the Thames.

ANDRE VILJOEN, Bohn & Viljoen

Andre Viljoen is an architect and a senior lecturer in architecture at the University of Brighton and with Katrin Bohn contributes to the work of Bohn&Viljoen Architects. The publication in 2005 of Bohn & Viljoen’s book CPULs Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes: designing urban agriculture for sustainable cities, consolidated a body of research underpinning the case for urban agriculture as an essential element of sustainable urban infrastructure. This book and the associated design concept has had a significant international impact, resulting in invitations to exhibit and lecture widely, including recent exhibitions hosted by the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Canadian Centre for Architecture and Exit Arts in New York. Bohn & Viljoen’s projects include feasibility and design studies as well as food growing installations and events for clients such as the Greater London Authority, London Festival of Architecture, the Building Centre and Sustain.

ANDREA BRENNEN, Architect

Andrea Brennen is a recent graduate from the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Rotterdam Biennale, and the Canadian Center for Architecture. She is interested in how environmental issues are changing the practice of architecture and how architects can engage in more pro-active forms of practice. After spending much of last year designing a sustainable building system for the Antarctic, she is now living in the Negev Desert, researching energy use in buildings in extreme-arid environments. She spends nearly all of her free time rock climbing.

ANNA ESBJØRN HESS, Danish Architecture Centre

Anna is a Project Manager at the Danish Architecture Centre and an anthropologist working on the Sustainable Cities database. She develops and carries out projects that aim to document, share and activate knowledge about urban sustainability. She More about Anna Esbjørn Hessholds a diploma in ethnography and social anthropology from Aarhus University and joined DAC following a position as project manager at The Danish Town Planning Institute.

ANNA KIRAH, CPH Design

Anna offers 16 years of experience in concept making through front-end research, product and service design and development, design and implementation of educational programmes in concept making and radical innovation, customer service and managing organizational change.

ANTONI VIVES, City of Barcelona

Antoni Vives is an economist, politician and essay-writer. Promoter and Member of the board of The Catalan Institute for Advanced Architecture (IAAC), lecturer at the London School of Economics, he cooperates with several think tanks working on the city, identity and other related subjects. He is secretary of the Cabinet Office of The Catalan Government and also elected member of the council of Barcelona.

Read Antoni’s post on The Right To The City Manifesto in RECODE Urbanism.

ASHISH DESHPANDE, Elephant Design

Ashish is the Founder of Elephant Design and leads all the branded product design projects and brand environment projects of the company. He graduated from faculty of Industrial Design of National Institute of Design (India) in 1989 with specialization in consumer product design using engineering plastic processes. Over the years he has been part of over 250 design projects ranging from appliances & medical equipment to retail environments and has lead teams on various award winning projects.

ASIER LARRETEXEA BARJA, SQ Consult

Asier is a consultant in topics related to the implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency concepts in built areas. Based on the experience gained on Sustainable Construction in The Netherlands and working on the department of Energy in the Built Environment at Ecofys Spain, he currently develops energy concepts for local energy generation, transmission and energy efficiency at urban and rural areas. His work goes from the strategic perspective to the creation of concepts and the implementation of realistic technologies and solutions.

ATHINA STAMATOPOULOU, NTU Athens

Athina is an undergraduate student of NTU Athens in the department of architecture, preparing her final project to graduate. She is interested in new technologies, new media, communication and interaction, in landscape and city planning, public space and urban environments, not only in the context of architecture, but also in artistic, social and anthropological terms. She focuses on creative interaction that challenges people to re-think, to participate in the formation of their experience and customize it in every scale of the urban reality. She was member of the organization of easa007, which took place in Elefsina in Greece. She has participated in architecture and cultural events and exhibitions in Greece, in indesem 2009 workshop, under the theme ”point of view”, in the university of Delft and in the “solar house workshop” at Iaac institute in Barcelona.

BLAINE O’NEILL, International Youth Climate Movement

Blaine O’Neill is currently in Copenhagen studying architecture and sustainable design and immersed in the buildup to COP15, the planet’s last chance for a substantial global climate treaty.

BRAD BARTHOLOMEW, Little -Diversified Architectural Consulting

Bradley Bartholomew leads a team of architects and designers dedicated to creative and innovative sustainable design at Little Diversified Architectural Consulting located in Charlotte, North Carolina. With more than 15 years of experience in design and construction, Brad’s diverse body of work includes civic, commercial, hospitality, retail and residential commissions, which have garnered regional, national and international attention.

CAROLYN STEEL,author of Hungry City

Carolyn Steel is an architect and author. Since qualifying from Cambridge University in 1984, Carolyn has combined practice with teaching, writing and research. She joined the practice in 1989, since when she has completed several buildings for the Central School of Speech and Drama. Her academic work has focused on the everyday lives of cities, and her lecture series Food and the City is an established part of the architectural degree at Cambridge University. She has run successful design units at Cambridge, London Metropolitan University, and at the London School of Economics, where she was inaugural studio director of the Cities Programme.

See Carolyn’s post on Sitopia in RECODE Urbanism.

CHANTAL VANOETEREN, Human Cities

She graduated in management and in town planning. After several years of working in sales and marketing, she has specialised in sustainable development and town planning through different professional experiences. She worked with local, regional and federal authorities, within research teams and for a consultancy office. In collaboration with Pro Materia she launched the “Human Cities” concept. She is currently working at the Faculté d’Architecture La Cambre Horta in Brussels where she coordinates the project “Human Cities” and a professional training centered on urban public spaces.

CHRIS GARVIN, Terrapin Bright Green

Chris is a partner at Terrapin Bright Green, a strategic environmental consulting group, and a senior associate at Cook+Fox Architects. His interests include high-performance design at both the building and community scale, zero energy communities, biomimicry, and water conservation. Complementing his work at Terrapin, Chris lectures frequently on sustainable design and has taught at the Pratt Institute’s Center for Professional Practice since 2002. In addition, he is currently developing an exhibit on “Biomimicry and the Built Environment: lessons learned from Nature”. Chris received a Bachelor of Architecture degree with honors from Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked with noted professor Vivian Loftness and spent a year at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland.

CHRIS MARE, Village Design Institute

Chris Mare designed and completed the world’s first BA degree devoted to Ecovillage Design. An MA in Whole Systems Design and a PhD in Human and Organization Development provided opportunities to create numerous studies embellishing the greater theme “sustainable community design and development.” Mare founded a non-profit – Village Design Institute – whose purpose is to offer design, education, and consultancy at the three morphologies: ecovillage, urban village, traditional village. As Program Development Coordinator for Gaia Education, Mare gets to oversee the global diffusion of an Ecovillage Design Education curriculum. Chris Mare grows and gives away as much food as he can.

DANIEL CHRISTIAN WAHL, FRSA

Daniel holds a BSc (Hons) in Biology from the University of Edinburgh, an MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College, and a PhD in Sustainability from the Centre for the Study of Natural Design (University of Dundee), where he is a research supervisor. Daniel works part-time as the academic director of the Findhorn College and as a researcher for the International Futures Forum. As a sustainability, programme development, and strategy consultant, he collaborates with the Bioneers, the State of the World Forum, Decision Integrity Ltd, Gaia Education, and the UNITAR affiliated training centre CIFAL Findhorn. Daniel is passionate about whole systems design and the creation of win-win-win strategies for systemic resilience and sustainability, which is what connects him directly to CLEAR VILLAGE.

DAVID CARLSON, Designboost

Carlson is an international acclaimed design thinker and trend strategist and has been working in the forefront of the international design scene for twenty years. David has a true intrepreneurial spirit and is besides of Designboost also the founder of the design brand David Design, the trend report David Report and the lifestyle shop Carlson Ahnell. For many years David wrks with creative direction and visualises and conceptualises brand strategies by creating experiences like new innovation products, services, communication and environments. David has an important international network in the global design community.

DEBRA SOLOMON, Artist & Designer

In 2007 Solomon co-curated the Edible City (NAi-Maastricht) on food and the built environment and was food domain expert of DOTT07, a design biennial in Newcastle (UK). In 2008 as designer invitée of the Int’l Bienale du Design (Saint-Étienne, FR) she showed community tools for food and sustainability. Currently Solomon is working with architects and local people on projects that are radical visions for community involvement with food systems and urban agriculture. With STROOM Den Haag and local organisations Solomon is developing a ‘real’ edible city for the Schilderswijk in Den Haag. Aside from edible landscaping accessing green and social infrastructure, the co-designs include open-to-the-public communal kitchen facilities aimed at bolstering social cohesion through local food-related micro-economies.

DEREK STEWART, Metalli Lindberg

Derek is a graphic designer and Design director at Metalli Lindberg in Conegliano, NE Italy. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and worked in various studios in London before moving to Italy. He has worked for clients as diverse as BP Oil, Joe Strummer, Rex-Zanussi, Gitzo, Ecor, Hamleys, Duran Duran, Consorzio Priula, Moto Guzzi. His work has been recognised nationally and internationally and has been published in design books and magazines throughout the world. Metalli Lindberg’s philosophy is ‘working for positive change’ and this is the premise for every project taken on, big or small. ‘Every product, service, message can contribute to making it a better world in which we live, diffusing values that go beyond being purely material and economical: ethics, sustainability, culture.

DOUGALD HINE, Space Makers

Dougald Hine is the founder and director of Space Makers, the agency responsible for the transformation of Brixton Village and a wave of other grassroots regeneration projects. He started his career as a BBC journalist and was also responsible for founding the award-winning web start-up School of Everything and is the author with Paul Kingsnorth of ‘Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Manifesto’.

DUNCAN MARTIN, Cloughjordan

Dr Duncan Martin is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist and former Senior Lecturer at the University of Limerick, in Ireland. He has been a member of the design team for Ireland’s first ecovillage, in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary, since 2002 and will be building there himself. He also leads the Village Education, Research & Training group. The ecovillage, which will add 130 homes plus community and commercial buildings to an existing town, is now under construction: see www.thevillage.ie.

EDMUND COLVILLE, Edmund Colville Landscape Designs

Edmund Colville designs unique gardens both domestically and commercially. Having come from a fine art background, he was inspired to design gardens through a deep empathy with nature and a desire to create beautiful spaces. Having trained in the History of Art and Architecture at Manchester University and 3D design at Camberwell College of Art, Edmund then trained in Garden Design at the Inchbald School of Design. He also obtained a General Certificate in Horticulture from the Royal Horticultural Society and has a qualification in Permaculture Design. Edmund has worked on many gardens in Cape Town, South Africa as well as here in England. This has given him a good experience in dealing with gardens in any type of climate.

ELIN GUDNADOTTIR, RIBA ‘Building Futures’

Having worked in the field of community participation in local decision making for 6 years, Elin has developed expert knowledge in the field of planning, community consultation and equality. Now she runs the ‘Building Futures’ programme in RIBA – a leading think-tank on architecture and the built environment. Through debates, events and research, ‘Building Futures’ explore current and future social, economic and environmental trends that impact upon the built environment.

ERIC COREY FREED, Urban Re:Vision

Eric Corey Freed is Executive Director of Urban Re:Vision and principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in San Francisco, with over 15 years of experience in green building. Eric teaches the Sustainable Design program he developed at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of nearly a dozen other organizations. He was the founding Chair of Architecture for The San Francisco Design Museum and one of the founders of ecoTECTURE: The Online Journal of Ecological Design and the author of “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies” (John Wiley & Sons), a best seller with 50,000 copies in print.

FILIPE BALESTRA, Urban Nouveau

Filipe is part of a new breed of young, visionary architects, who see architecture as a vehicle for shaping a sustainable global future. After creating works for architects such as Rem Koolhaas and Thomas Sandell, Filipe is working on his own vision of Evolutionary Architecture, which uses his profession as an instrument to accelerate global development. By prototyping, strategizing, visualizing problems and strategizing solutions, he hopes to create models and processes that can be spread and shared, to be a catalyst for incremental change.

FRANK VAN HASSELT, Ethical Economy

Frank studied philosophy at Oxford and spent about ten years working in the corporate and venture capital sector. He is currently in charge of strategic accounts at Ethical Economy, a London-based company that develops tools and services that enable individuals, companies and organisations to live their values and maximize their ethical impact.

FRANZ NAHRADA, Globally Integrated Village Environment

Franz Nahrada is specialized on research and the connection points between local development, information and communication technologies and finding out the best and most sustainable patterns, integrating them in future village scenarios. Special attention is given to education, local learning centers technologies and design tools, and mapping and chaining of local value driven enterprises and on urban-rural cooperations.

GLEN MCMINN, Breakhouse

Glen McMinn, is Creative Director and founding partner of Breakhouse, a multidisciplinary retail design consultancy, based in Halifax, NS. Since the inception of Breakhouse in 2000, Glen has partnered with regional and national clients, including McDonald’s Canada, Sobeys, and Bell Canada, in the creation of branding, retail design and architectural initiatives. Glen holds a MA in Architecture and a BA in Environmental Design and has lectured and critiqued at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, and the University of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business.

GREG RAMSEY, Co-founder of Village Habitat Design

Greg Ramsey is Co-founder and Director of Village Habitat Design, a village and hamlet-planning firm in Atlanta Georgia. Greg started his career under the tutelage of his father George Ramsey, founder of the Southeastern Eco-village movement during the 1970’s energy embargo. Greg is Co-author of Conservation Communities, a primer on eco-village development and works internationally as a conservation community planner, designer, consultant and charity leader. Greg has planned a variety of eco-villages; co housing communities and farm based urban and rural communities nationally and internationally and facilitated the first regional Transfer of Development Rights in the Southeastern US. His awards for these initiatives include the U.N. World Habitat award and National and State AIA awards. Greg brings a unique perspective from a long immersion in traditional village and hamlet planning, synthesizing sustainable land use with local sustainable community and economic development at a regional and site based scale.

GUIDO VERIJKE, Ikea

Guido Verijke is Director of the IKEA Better Cotton Project. Originally from Belgium, now officially Swedish, Guido has been with IKEA for 24 years. For the first 12 years, he was in the stores in different management functions, then sales leader for IKEA Belgium’s children’s range, commercial manager for the children’s range in northern Europe, then commercial manager for the children’s range worldwide. In 2001 he became commercial manager worldwide for bedroom, and since 2003 he’s been deputy business area manager for textiles. He enjoys music, film and enjoying life.

HAZEL HENDERSON, Ethical Markets Media

Hazel Henderson is President of the independent multi-media company Ethical Markets Media in the US and Brazil. She is author of Ethical Markets Growing The Green Economy (2006) and eight other books. InterPress Service syndicates her editorials to 200 newspapers in many countries. She has served on many advisory boards, including the US Office of Technology Assessment, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering, the Worldwatch Institute and the Calvert Group of socially responsible mutual funds, with whom she pioneered the Calvert Henderson Quality-of-Life Indicators.

HENNING THOMSEN, Head of Planning, Schonherr

He trained as an architect and holds a diploma from Arkitektskolen in Aarhus, a diploma in Political Science from Aarhus University, and is Master of Management Development (MMD) from Copenhagen Business School. He has researched, taught, written and lectured on architecture and urban development at both Danish and foreign architectural institutions. Following employment at By- og Boligministeriet (Urban and Housing Ministry) he became Head of Secretariat for Byforum (Urban Forum), the then urban and housing minister’s think tank on urban policy. He has also been Head of Projects at Realdania, where he among other things was responsible for the development of Realdania Member Debate. Henning joined DAC in 2007 following from the position as CEO of Akademisk Arkitektforening (The Architect’s Association of Denmark). Now in a new position at Gehl combining the responsibilites for overall communication + internal as well as external brand and cultural integrity. Gehl Architects’ vision is to create better cities. They aspire to create cities that are lively, healthy, diverse, sustainable and safe – and thereby improve people’s quality of life.

See what Henning wrote on instantaneous interdependency in RECODE Urbanism

IAN BRYAN, Sensible City

Ian Bryan is a veteran media strategist and the President of Sensible City, a community-oriented marketing and public relations agency specializing in enterprises which propel greatly-needed social and environmental progress. Sensible City, founded in 2001, represents several of the most popular progressive brands in the United States and averages over 3 news stories per week, per client, making it one of the top producing media agencies in the world. An outreach strategy consultant to Barack Obama’s Senate and Presidential Campaigns, Ian is responsible for Sensible City’s design and measurement of social media programs and community engagement strategies for a host of progressive corporations and municipalities.

JEFF THIMM, Albanian Institute for Environmental Policy

Jeff Thimm is a Rural Development Specialist working in sustainable rural and urban development, social & environmental entrepreneurship, permaculture design, natural farming and appropriate technology. He is currently designing and creating a sustainable micro-farm on the outskirts of Tirana, Albania, to be a model for rural and peri-urban development in the Balkans and Mediterranean. Based on Permaculture design and Fukuoka natural farming, we will integrate food production with ecosystem cultivation and appropriate technology to form the basis of abundance.

JENNIFER LEONARD, Project Leader at IDEO & Co-Author of Massive Change

Jennifer is an interdisciplinary Project Leader at IDEO, with deep experience in research methods, participatory design and storytelling techniques. She is the co-author of Massive Change (with Bruce Mau), a book about the future of global design, voted 1 of 5 top books of 2004 by Wallpaper* magazine. She also worked for 10 years as a writer and radio broadcaster in New York and Toronto after studying journalism in graduate school, where she received the top researcher award and Norman Jewison prize for creative writing. Upon completing an internship at Rolling Stone in ’98, she went on to run a series of popular radio programs and publish feature pieces in a variety of magazines including Details, Nylon, Seed, DAMn, Azure, Saturday Night, Form and Shift. Jennifer is an enthusiastic supporter of the arts, particularly as it pertains to collaborative practice and social change, and avidly chronicles the everyday. She frequently participates in design conferences around the world and was recognized in I.D.’s 2008 design issue for her concept to raise awareness of global warming.

Read Jennifers interview with Michael Braungart in RECODE Urbanism.

JESPER NØRGAARD PAGH, Move

Jesper is Co-Founder of Move. He holds a diploma from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. After his studies, Jesper worked as an inhouse designer in a company developing and manufacturing power electronics before starting his own design consultancy in 2004. In January 2007 MOVE was founded when Jesper and Bo Borbye Pedersen joined forces and today Jesper work in the fields of research, strategy and concept development. Jesper is also a board member at Danish Design Association.

JESS TYRRELL, Germination

Jess is Founder of Germination which she set up 3 years ago. Having trained originally as a theatre director, set up and ran a music agency and then got all serious. She worked as head of external affairs for the UK’s leading political think-tank for 3 years, including a short period working for the PM. After a major epiphany and realising that politics doesn’t work, she went back to what she does best – putting on events that hopefully always entertain and maybe, occasionally make people think.

JOB ROMIJN, Artist

Job is an artist pursing the line between art and practicality. As he is an idea generator, he’s setting up a structure to enable him to live of his ideas. In his hometown Amsterdam, he is active within a variety of discourses, most well-known, he is Member of the Club of Amsterdam Round Table.

JOSHUA FOSS, Thrive Design Studio

Joshua is a dynamic practitioner and ambassador for transformational design, having worked with some of the most innovative projects, developments, and guiding philosophies on the planet. He is very much a horizontal thinker, applying a diverse number of projects through a lens that envisions a future beyond sustainability. He is a LEED AP and principal of Thrive Design Studio, works with Beyond Green, a London-based sustainable development firm which is designing a community with the aim of having the highest quality of life and lowest environmental footprint in all of Europe, is an ambassador for the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most ambitious building certification standard, and is adjunct faculty at Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s Sustainable Design Online master’s program. He is also a proven communicator and media expert, having starred in an American reality TV show and led over 120 seminars about sustainable development on a US-based speaking circuit.

JOSHUA GOTTDENKER, Tamera Solar Village

Joshua is a Solar Village Technology Specialist at Tamera Healing Biotope I working as a redistropreneur with a diverse background in science (plant biology) and technology (computers and electronics for augmenting learning and thinking) with tendencies towards conceptual art and building alternative energy production facilities and sustainable food production and habitat infrastructure.

KARINA VISSONOVA, Velux

Karina Vissonova is a product developer for Velux who works on new product concepts and strategises for sustainable business development. Karina has managed co-create projects and works in a transdisciplinary way to ensure well rounded concepts. She studied Intercultural Management at Copenhagen Business School. Before moving to Denmark, Karina worked with wood trade in Latvia.

KATHRINE O. RASMUSSEN, Actiontank

Kathrine O. Rasmussen holds a BA in Art from University of Aarhus and was educated at the Kaospilot, with the school motto:” We don’t want to be the best school in the world, but the best school for the world”. Kathrine founded Actiontank together with Stine L. Hansen. Actiontank is a proactive think tank using design methods and processes to create social innovation. Actiontank sets a new team of external consultants – Actionmen – for each assignment. Actionmen each hold a specific competence or knowledge that is relevant for the need. This creates a dynamic organization, always designed to address the individual assignment the best way possible.

KATRIN OLINA, Katrin Olina ltd

Born in Iceland, Katrin Olina studied Industrial Design at the E.S.D.I. in Paris before working in the European design studios of Philippe Starck (Paris) and Ross Lovegrove (London). Since then, she has worked predominantly as a graphic artist and illustrator in the realms of industrial design, fashion, interiors, print, and animation, as well as participating in several prominent museum and gallery exhibitions.

KIPPER BLAKELY, Blatter+Frick

Kipper Blakeley has been involved with philanthropy both as a donor and as an implementing partner of programs for the past 17 years. His field experience includes working in Latin America and Asia. Most recently, he served as an International Advisor for the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), run by one of the most well-known “social entrepreneurs,” Mechai Viravaidya. In this capacity, Kipper worked on a senior management team tasked with development, implementation and follow-up of myriad programs, including micro-credit and HIV-prevention initiatives, as well as the post-Tsunami socio-economic rehabilitation of nearly 100 villages. Kipper works for Blatter+Frick as a consultant. Following the sale of the family business, Kipper has been involved with setting up the family foundation. Kipper’s private sector experience includes working at Accenture in Colombia and five years of international business development for Extech, a printer manufacturer in the United States. He earned a Master’s degree from The Fletcher School, where he supplemented his business courses with classes on microcredit, refugee issues, and non-profit management. He currently sits on the European Advisory Group of The Fletcher School.

KORINNA THIELEN, Arup

Korinna works at the Institute for Sustainability, where she is responsible for developing a research centre for the built environment within the Thames Gateway, Europe’s largest regeneration area. She is well experienced in planning, designing and delivering complex urban projects. Korinna previously worked at Arup, most recently for the Global Foresight and Innovation Group, a strategic research group exploring emerging trends and innovations and scenarios for the future and developing strategies for approaching issues such as climate change, changing demographics or resource depletion. She also worked with Urban Design group, specialising on the design of sustainable cities, where she leading major and significant Master planning projects for urban regeneration projects and sustainable new towns in the UK. Korinna holds a Master in geography from London School of Economics and a diploma in architecture from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. She continues her academic interest as a deputy editor and author for the journal CITY, as well as through teaching and other academic appointments.

KRISTINA BÖRJESSON, PhD, Research Associate -Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London

Kristina Börjesson is dedicated to the designed object and its contribution to a holistic sustainable development. Sustainable development has developed into something of a buzz-word and its meaning has consequently become obscured. The word ‘holistic’ , which should serve as a reminder that sustainability depends on coordinated transdisciplinary actions, has become part of the buzz. She focused initially on the designed object but as a result of continued research it has become evident to enlarge the scope to include the ‘designed environment’, which is made up of a number of artefacts imposing themselves on nature, for better or for worse. What is for the benefit of humans long term is of course sustainable. A sustainable development would thus mean a human development and design and architecture ought consequently to focus more on design, body and mind.

See what Kristina wrote on Bridging Villages in RECODE Urbanism

LAUREN B. ALLSOPP, Transpolis Global
Lauren Allsopp is a professor and architectural conservator. She has taught at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and, as an associate professor at Eastern Michigan University, taught in the graduate Historic Preservation program. Prior to academia, she was the architectural conservator at the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. Lauren holds a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; she is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Her research focuses on vernacular architecture and the conservation of traditional materials, particularly masonry. Her favourite places to work are where these elements come into play within a community setting with sustainable needs. Clients have included the National Park Service, the Hungarian Government, and R.M.S. Titanic, Inc. Lauren’s favourite quote is from William Radford in 1908: “A man who builds a house owes a duty not alone to himself but to the neighborhood as well. He really has no moral right to construct a home that will be a blight on the landscape.”

MICHAEL BRAUNGART, Cradle to Cradle

Michael Braungart was recently appointed to the Special Endowed Chair “Cradle to Cradle in relation to sustainable system innovations and transitions in theory and in practice”. For two decades he has pioneered a system of product innovation known as Cradle to Cradle. He co-authored the book by the same name, as well as lecturing at numerous universities in Europe, America and Asia. As head of the scientific institute EPEA he is working with companies in almost every sector of the Dutch economy to develop Cradle to Cradle products and processes.

MIRIAM TURNER, Interfaceflor

Miriam Turner is Innovations Project Co-ordinator for InterfaceFLOR in Europe a division of US based Interface Inc., a global leader in the manufacture of environmentally responsible floor coverings. After reading Biological Sciences (Hons Ecology) at Edinburgh University, Miriam went on to complete an MProf in Leadership for Sustainable Development, run by Forum for the Future, the leading sustainability charity in the UK. The fast track programme is formed of an interactive blend of work-based experience, development of leadership skills, intensive tuition, and personal reflection. Miriam is particularly interested in the business contribution to furthering sustainable development, and working abroad in countries such as Paraguay, Mexico, Ecuador, and India has developed her understanding of the global dimensions to sustainable change. Miriam is currently working towards an accreditation from PBAS Partnership Brokers Accreditation Scheme).

MONICA FOSSATI, Ekwo Magazine

Monica Fossati is an Eco Consultant, Founder and Director of Ekwo Magazine. After having led several projects in engineering and marketing, Monica was active in the world of fashion in France and internationally.

NATHANIEL CORUM, Architecture for Humanity

A staff architect for Architecture for Humanity, Nathaniel coordinates its international studio programs, including an AfH Container Studio, a Prefab Core Studio, a Floating Classroom Studio, and a Pac Rim Studio. He is also a design architect for various AfH projects. In addition Nathaniel leads a material science team for an AfH Alternative Masonry Unit (AMU) project, and serves as Cabin Architect and Sustainability Consultant for the Plastiki Expedition. After studying product design at Stanford University, Nathaniel trained as an architect at the University of Texas at Austin. A subsequent Fulbright Scholarship allowed him to focus on preservation and urban poverty issues in North Africa. He is also the recipient of a Rose Architectural Fellowship, and author of Building a Straw Bale House (Princeton Architectural Press). Nathaniel has been collaborating with AfH since 2005 when he and Cameron were both teaching in Montana and writing books.

NICOLA GIUGGIOLI, EcoAge

Nicola is an expert on the green home and the founder of Eco Age, the chic new shop in Chiswick where you can find everything from earth-kind cushions to rooftop wind turbines. He built his first solar panel when he was 13 and wrote his dissertation on moving from fossil fuels to renewable sources. He’s also a fabulous cook, especially Italian cuisine. He favours local and seasonal produce and grows his own herbs.

OLIVER MARLOW, Facilitator

Oliver has been one of the driving forces of the UK based work collective concept “The Hub” from when it began with the first Hub of green professionals in Islington, London. With his unique skillset as a designer, carpenter, academic and facilitator, he works on all levels of the design process and has been a key person in developing the Hub, as well as in its expansion all over the world over the last five years. His new design practice, TILT, pushes the co-design approach further, recently working with NPI Shanghai, the first social innovation centre in China to Forward Space in Somerset, England for example. He facilitates co-design workshops globally, recently working in Zurich and Sao Paulo.

OLIVER ROWE, Konstam

When chef Oliver Rowe announced plans to source all the ingredients for his new King’s Cross restaurant from within the M25, it sounded like a brilliant gimmick..

What proud Londoner would not be enticed in, even if the gastronomic results inevitably failed to cut the mustard? As London’s newspaper the Evening Standard was, naturally, the first through the door, intrigued but healthily sceptical. We came to scoff. We stayed and scoffed. As its name suggests, Konstam at the Prince Albert occupies a former Victorian pub, tarted up with a smart gunmetal paint job and glittery, dangly light fittings. The kitchen is where the bar used to be, with 32-year-old Rowe playing mine host over a flaming pan rather than a foaming pint. The menu is short but hearty. And, it turns out, delicious.

PAUL HUGHES, Designer & Thought Leader

Paul works to find the right balance between theory and practice within the field of design. His place of repeated practice is Amsterdam, and he holds a variety of different engagements to share his understanding on the theory of design. A frequent theme running throughout his engagements is the subject of ‘Unpacking the Creative Process’. Creative processes need not be haphazard or questionable procedures; rather, creativity can become deliberate and effective procedures. This deliberate approach to creativity and innovation is captured in what he calls ‘Design Thinking’.

PETER MAJANEN, Quattroporte

Peter Majanen is not only a successful value researcher, author, lecturer and a talented communicator. He also has a degree in singing, is a junior master in shot put and father of the company Quattroporte amongst other pursuits.

PETER VICTOR, Professor in Environmental Studies at York University

Dr. Peter Victor is a Professor in Environmental Studies at York University. He is an economist who has worked on environmental issues for nearly 40 years as an academic, consultant and public servant. By extending input-output analysis, he was the first economist to apply the physical law of the conservation of matter to the empirical analysis of a national economy. Dr. Victor was one of the founders of the emerging discipline of ecological economics and was the first President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics. His most recent book is Managing without Growth. Slower by Design, Not Disaster.

PETER WUENSCH, Breakhouse

Peter Wuensch, is Creative Director and founding partner of Breakhouse, a multidisciplinary retail design consultancy, based in Halifax, NS. Peter oversees the company’s creative vision and overall design direction in the creation of innovative, holistically branded retail experiences that resonate with customers on highly emotional level. Key clients include Carbonstok, Aliant, Alexander Keith’s and Ascenta Health Ltd. Peter has an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia School of Design and has lectured at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, and the University of Western Ontario Ivey School of Business.

PHILIP D. ALLSOPP, Principal, Transpolis Global

A trained architect, Philip D. Allsopp is Principal of Transpolis Global, a global collaboration of design, academic, and public policy experts joining forces to inspire creative local solutions to the complex social, economic and environmental problems faced by neighborhoods, communities and cities. Acting as both a catalyst for action through consultancy as well as an applied research entity through its formal linkages to key universities, Transpolis is devoted to improving the policy, business practices, and design input that help to create urban conditions under which communities, cultures, and the arts and sciences are able to thrive.

PIERRE BÉLANGER, Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design

Pierre Bélanger is Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. His academic research and public work focus on the convergence of landscape and infrastructure. Combining knowledge from the earth and engineering sciences, he collaborates with public agencies, regional authorities, and private landowners towards the reclamation, redesign and reconstruction of large urban-industrial landscapes with dual objectives of ecological performance and economic durability. His design work has received several prizes for competitions including Columbus Re-Wired, the Chicago Prize and the Prix de Rome. Bélanger is publicly appointed as a member of the TRCA Etobicoke-Mimico Watershed Coalition Task Force, one of the most industrialized regions in the Great Lakes, and as a director on the Ontario Food Terminal Board, the largest wholesale food distribution facility in Canada.

SHAWN WESTCOTT, Westcott Initiatives, Social Entrepreneurship Forum

Shawn is a sustainability catalyzer, initiator, and connector. As founder of Westcott Initiatives, he utilizes facilitation processes and a systems-based approach to planning to provide strategy and support to initiate and scale-up sustainability initiatives. He also serves as the Chairman of Sweden’s Social Entrepreneurship Forum, a NGO working to promote social entrepreneurship. He recently oversaw the development of SE Forum’s “SE Outreach Accelerator” program, which supports early-stage social entrepreneurs to scale their impact in developing countries. He previously spent 7 years as a US political adviser, strategist and community development planner. While in university, he helped launch a national NGO, LIFT, with the mission to combat poverty and expand opportunity for people in the US. He is a veteran of the US Marine Corps, and he holds an MSc in Strategic Leadership toward Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology and a BA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

STACEY FROST, Urban Re:Vision

Stacey Frost if the Founder of Urban Revision. She was formerly the youngest female option trader on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. After leaving the fast-paced world of option trading, Stacey Frost decided to cultivate a career in a field for which she had a lifelong appreciation; the renovation of homes. In 2003 Stacey Frost moved to San Francisco where she narrowed her focus to the renovation of historical homes although her work now incorporated a long-time passion for sustainability. Her recognition of the need for sustainable environments, particularly in urban areas in which contain the vast majority of toxic building materials. After soliciting leading professionals in the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) industry to better determine the most effective way to incorporate sustainability into our nation’s large cities, Urban Re:Vision was created.

SUE RIDDLESTONE, Executive Director and Co-Founder of BioRegional, Co-Director One Planet

Sue is a Skoll Award winning social entrepreneur. As a founder of BioRegional’s One Planet programme, she has worked to introduce sustainable communities in countries from China to the USA. Sue has pioneered projects on sustainable paper production, including creating The Laundry, London’s first kerbside recycling collection. As a member of the Mayor’s London Sustainable Development Commission, Sue has set targets for reducing London’s CO2 emissions and the London 2012 Olympic bid – and subsequently helped to write the sustainability strategy “One Planet Olympics”. Sue co-authored a book with co-founder Pooran Desai about BioRegional’s projects and approach – “BioRegional Solutions”, and is a regular contributor to conferences and the media. In 2008 the Government appointed Sue to the Eco-Towns Challenge Panel, with CABE Sue wrote “What makes an eco-town?”.

TANJA JORDAN, Tanja Jordan Architects

Tanja Jordan has worked as an independent architect since 2000 and founded Tanja Jordan Architects in 2008. She is responsible for project development and the realization of projects in the fields of housing and culture, participatory planning and programmatic/visionary urban projects. Tania Jordan Architects believe that an architectural programme is a collective learning process, where the dialogue between engaged and informed partners makes everyone better. This dialogue should challenge normative thinking and support the creative vision of the office: to design prospects which can create new ways of living with a minimum CO2 footprint.Tanja is educated internationally and is currently following the master programme MEGA (Master in Energy and Green Architecture) in Aarhus.

THOMAS DANIELL, Thomas Daniell Architects

Born in New Zealand, Thomas Daniell is a practicing architect, critic, and academic based in Kyoto, Japan. He holds a B.Arch from Victoria University, an M.Eng from Kyoto University, and a Ph.D from RMIT University. Currently an Associate Professor at Kyoto Seika University and a Visiting Fellow at the RMIT Spatial Information Architecture Lab, he is also an editorial advisor for the journals Archis and Mark, and was previously on the editorial board of the Architectural Institute of Japan Journal. His most recent book is After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008).

ZACHARY POSTONE, Activist

Zachary Postone is a political science student at Swarthmore College focusing on housing and environmental policy, interested in collaborative planning processes and community-based environmental management. He has previously worked for ViviendasLeon, an international development nonprofit organization, the USGBC’s Affordable Housing Initiative, and the Delaware County Alliance for Environmental Justice.